Andy Tullis / The BulletinInThursday mornings frigid temperatures, Horizon Ground Crew employee Michael Borges is perched in a bucket truck as he sprays E36 liquid runway deicer on a 76-seat Alaska Airlines Bombardier Q400 aircraft during final preparation for its flight to Portland from the Redmond Airport.

Central Oregon should expect more snow today, with forecasters saying up to a half foot of new snow could accumulate in Bend and add to what’s already on the ground from earlier this week.

“It’s going to be quite a bit,” said Ann Adams, an assistant forecaster with the National Weather Service in Pendleton.

The Weather Service late Thursday afternoon was calling for an 80 percent chance of snow in Bend today, she said, and a 100 percent chance for snow in town tonight. A second winter storm system was expected to move into Central Oregon from the west late today, providing the increased likelihood of more snow.

While packing a snowy punch like the first system, the second system will bring warmer temperatures.

“It won’t be so frigid,” Adams said.

The winter storm system passing through Thursday brought single-digit, morning low temperatures to towns around Central Oregon, she said. Thursday morning, the Bend Municipal Airport reported a low of 3 degrees with the Redmond Airport reporting 4 degrees. Lows in other parts of Central Oregon dropped to between 0 and 5 degrees. Today, the morning low should be around 20.

— Bulletin staff report